[The Times, U.K.]
El Tiempo, Colombia
The Heavens Will Judge
Bush Harshly
"During his hair-raising
eight-year term in office, he murdered diplomacy, pulverized human rights,
plundered the confidence people had in him, incited hatred and devastated a
beautiful nation. … as a committed Catholic, I believe that he won't be able to
escape justice up there."
By Salud Hernández-Mora
Translated By Liz Essary
January 4, 2009
Colombia
- El Tiempo - Original Article (Spanish)
You couldn't possibly begin
the year better. The infamous inhabitant of the White House will return to his
ranch and observe from a distance, as the world shakes off the countless wounds
he inflicted.
During his hair-raising
eight-year term in office, he murdered diplomacy, pulverized human rights,
plundered the confidence people had in him, incited hatred and devastated a
beautiful nation.
Nothing and no one could ever
justify his innumerable errors, the brutality of his rule, or the arrogance of
his government.
I'm holding on to the dream
of seeing him sit in an international court, answering for his war crimes like
any ruthless satrap. I know this is absurd, because empires impose their laws -
and their leaders are untouchable. But if not in this world, it will be in
another life, because I, as a committed Catholic, believe that he won't be able
to escape justice up there.
President
George W. Bush: Most of the world
will
welcome the sight of him leaving the stage
- and a good number think he'll be punished
in the hereafter …
Nor will it be all roses for
him on earth, either. Down here he'll pay a price for his infinite sins -
albeit a small one. First of all, neither he, nor his wife or daughters, will
ever be able to walk or even sleep in peace. When they leave their protected
hideout, at all times they will feel the breath of hundreds of fanatic
assassins who have not forgotten.
No one can say that penitence
due to his agitated conscience won't one day bring him to confess his crimes;
this constant uneasiness, which is one and the same as that which plagues the
Iraqis, may bring him to reconsider and admit that it was an inadmissible
cruelty to have invented a war. No one has the right to crush his fellow man,
no matter how much power and superiority he has.
Let no one attend his
conferences - those that ex-presidents give in exchange for a pretty penny. And
if anyone does attend, may they throw eggs, tomatoes, shoes, flour, and whistle
at him, and may they not allow him to continue lying.
Democracy is sometimes too
generous and allows a blanket of silence to be drawn over those who abandon the
throne, as if simply losing the scepter were punishment enough.
When he invaded Iraq, I predicted
a humiliating political end for him, for [British Prime Minister] Blair, and
for [Spain's Prime Minister] Aznar, and I wasn't wrong, at least not this time.
The three of them ended with weak approval ratings and the Englishman and
Spaniard saw the end of the brilliant European careers that they planned to
undertake. They continue to issue statements and hold positions here and there,
but nothing significant compared to what they could have achieved if, one far
away day, they had opposed an unjust, unpardonable war.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
I hope that the others who
joined in the savagery in a less active form and those who backed Bush's
policies for purely private interests, like the Colombian government, end up
feeling something akin to remorse.
The Texan will also suffer
under the implacable whip of historians. The infamous lies that were dressed up
as supposed pretexts for the invasion of Iraq will be repeated over and over
again - and children will study them in schoolbooks and on field trips.
And thanks go to that
brilliant and very generous maestro Fernando Botero [photo, below], a Colombian
to whom we will always be indebted for all that he has contributed to his
homeland. He left for posterity [a record of] the shame of a policy so callous
to human suffering, through his shocking canvasses of the torture at Abu Ghraib.
After we all have died, generations to come will know these horrors by the
master's paintbrush, and someone will explain that it was the one named George
W. Bush who generated such savagery.
Colombian
artist Fernando Botero: His paintings of Abu Ghraib
prison
created somewhat of a sensation in 2005. SLIDE SHOW 
And one day students will
travel to a free Cuba, without dictators, and visit the prison at Guantánamo as
a tourist attraction. They will be told that it is a monument to the abuses
committed by a cruel emperor who looked down upon both law and man. And again,
they will point to the cowboy as the responsible party. The children will then
begin to imagine him as a despicable president, and will connect his name with
those of the other tyrants throughout history.
CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US January 7, 6:54pm]
